IN THE WEEK that the NBA renewed its multi-year association with Budweiser, the beer brand’s parent company, ABInBev, made an equally significant deal with NBA China.
Talking to Frontloaded, Eelco van der Noll, global director, Sports & Entertainment ABInBev, said that the relief in completing the US agreement after the NBA lockout also applied to a deal struck in China worth more than the US deal in pure sponsorship terms.
“If you compare apples with apples the Chinese deal is actually bigger,” he said. “The traditional IP rights side of the sponsorship is very small in the USA. It’s only when you add up the media advertising commitments, including NBATV, as well as the team deals, that it becomes much bigger.
“But if you just take the sponsorship as a pure sponsorship the China deal is two to three times greater in value.”
The NBA sells its international sponsorship rights on a territory-by- territory basis, which means that an ABInBev competitor – Tsingtao – had been able to secure the rights to NBA China prior to the new deal.
Der Noll said that the NBA China deal would support the popular local brand Harbin rather than Budweiser.
Volumes of beer sold by ABInBev in China rose by 4.7% in the third quarter of this year, led by the Budweiser, Harbin and Sedrin brands.